My co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 227,099 discloses a pallet for supporting a plurality of similarly shaped parts piled one above another in a stacked condition. The pallet comprises a rectangular base adapted to seat flatwise on a factory floor, and a plural number of upstanding locator pins extending upwardly from the base to form an enclosure for a stack of parts.
The base has a series of linear slots extending therealong to accommodate the lower ends of the locator pins. Anchorage devices are associated with the pins to hold them in selected positions of adjustment along the slots depending on the configuration of the parts to be stacked on the base. The use of continuous slots is advantageous in that an infinite number of pin adjustments can be realized, within limits dictated by the lengths of the individual slots.
The present invention is directed to a pallet construction that is basically the same as the pallet structure shown in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 227,099. One aim of the present invention is to provide a pallet that can be a relatively lightweight construction while at the same time being relatively strong and effective as an anchorage mechanism for the locator pins.
The presently proposed pallet structure comprises a base formed in part by two parallel tubes spaced to define a midplane for the base. These tubes have rectangular cross sections designed to receive therein the lifter arms (prongs) of a fork lift truck. This feature enables the pallet to be readily transported from one point in a factory to another, via conventional lift truck operations.
The base of the pallet further comprises structural beam elements extending transversely from end areas of the fork liftreceiving tubes, and other structural beam elements interconnecting the outer ends of the first mentioned beam elements, to define a base having a rectangular configurations (when view in the top plan direction). The base is relatively strong, yet relatively liqht in weight (in relation to its capacity for supporting stacked parts).
The slot mechanism for adjustably anchoring the upstanding locator pins comprises a plural number (e.g., eight) elongated channel members (or hollow tracks) oriented horizontally on the upper surfaces of the rectangular cross-sectioned tubes and connected beam elements These channels (tracks) have upwardlyfacing slots running therealong to receive lower end areas of the upstanding locator pins. The extreme lower ends of the pins are constructed as non-circular plug elements, adapted to detachably fit into socket cavities provided within block-like anchorage devices slidably disposed within the hollow tracks The anchorage devices can be moved back and forth along the tracks to adjust the positions of the upstanding locator pins.
Typically, each locator pin has a total length of about twenty-five inches. About four inches of the pin length are formed into a non-circular plug element. This relatively long length plug element has a fairly rigid wobble-free connection with the associated socket cavity in the subjacent anchorage device.
The individual hollow tracks (channels) are relatively light in weight, yet they have relatively thick vertical internal dimensions (e.g., about four inches) for accommodating relatively thick anchorage blocks, as necessary, to achieve a firm support for the upstanding locator pins.
A principal object of this invention is to provide a pallet construction that is relatively light in weight, while at the same time providing firm rigid connections between the base area of the pallet and the adjustable locator pins. In preferred practice of the invention, the base of the pallet includes two horizontal tubes designed to accommodate the lifter arms of a fork lift truck.